Patrick Meier is an internationally recognized expert and consultant on Humanitarian Technology and Innovation. His new book, Digital Humanitarians, has been praised by Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, UN, Red Cross, World Bank, USAID and others. Over the past 15 years, Patrick has worked in the Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, India, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Morocco, Western Sahara, Haiti, Peru, Vanuatu, Fiji and Northern Ireland on a wide range of humanitarian projects with a number of international organizations including the United Nations, Red Cross and World Bank. More details on LinkedIn. In 2010, Patrick was publicly praised by Clinton for his pioneering digital humanitarian efforts, which he continues to this day. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC News, UK Guardian, The Economist, Forbes & Times Magazines, New Yorker, NPR, Wired, Mashable, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Nature, New Scientist, Scientific American and elsewhere. His influential and widely-read blog iRevolutions has received close to 2 million hits. Patrick serves as the Executive Director and Co-Founder of WeRobotics, which scales the positive impact of humanitarian aid, development and environmental projects through the use and localization of appropriate robotics solutions. These include aerial, marine and terrestrial and robotics. To do this, WeRobotics co-creates local innovation labs in developing countries (“Flying Labs”) where outstanding local partners gain direct access to the professional skills and robotics technologies they need to increase their impact. In the process, WeRobotics works with these partners to incubate local businesses that offer robotics as service, which sustain the Flying Labs. While at WeRobotics, Patrick also co-authored “Drones in Humanitarian Action: A Guide to the Use of Airborne Systems in Humanitarian Crises” available here. In addition, he authored the report “Humanitarian UAV Missions: Towards Best Practices” and wrote the chapter on Humanitarian UAVs in “Drones & Aerial Observation,” an important Primer published by the New America Foundation.

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